Sunday, August 10, 2014

More on Jayme McLellan and the Corcoran

The whole issue of DMV area gallerist, former Corcoran instructor and arts activist Jayme McLellan and her dismissal from the Corcoran discussed here has become rather confusing and muddied by the Corcoran's response to my post; see that here.

Ms. Loar from the Corcoran has responded to my request for a comment on McLellan's dismissal/firing from the Corcoran in spite of Jayme's assigned class for the next semester being full. I am waiting for her permission to publish her email in DC Art News.

However, someone allegedly from the Corcoran has commented (twice with same comment) in the comments section of the initial post and those comments essentially replicate the same response that Ms. Loar has passed to me, and since they both include an email from McLellan to a Corcoran person, it is safe to follow logic and deduce that all three communications (the two duplicate comments and the email from Ms. Loar) come from Corcoran sources, since they all transmit the same information.

And the comments say:
Jayne McLellan has not been fired by the Corcoran.  She resigned from the faculty in 2012 and has not taught here since. (resignation below).  She was never offered a contract for 2014. 
From:civilianartprojects@gmail.com[mailto:civilianartprojects@gmail.com] 
On Behalf Of Jayme McLellan 
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 3:16 PM 
To: Clare BrownSubject: resigning
Hi Clare, 
I'm going to resign from my adjunct spot at the Corcoran. I have simply lost faith in the leadership and cannot in good conscience continue teaching there.  
I can try to help you find a replacement. 
Best, Jayme 
Thank you for the opportunity to clarify this situation. - The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Corcoran College of Art + Design
 As I noted in my own comment in response to this information, and what makes this all very confusing, then why is McLellan listed as instructor for a Corcoran class - a full class - that is scheduled to begin in two weeks?

I asked Jayme, and she acknowledged that she had indeed resigned from the Corcoran in 2012, but then she also showed me multiple emails from the Corcoran offering her an opportunity to teach the class in 2014, including multiple emails that went not just to Jayme, but also to the entire Corcoran set of instructors... so there are multiple witness to the veracity of the offer.

Jayme writes:
While it is true that I gave up my classes in 2012, reluctantly, because leadership were trying to sell the building and ruin the institution, it is not true that I wasn't slated to teach starting in just a few weeks. I agreed in April to come back to teach one class and because I left two years ago to try to save the Corcoran, and have worked every day of that two years to try to change leadership, I had the hope that leadership would indeed be changing. I still have that hope.
I have asked Ms. Loar to clarify this evolving confusion, but there appear to be these facts:
  1.  McLellan resigned in 2012
  2. Corcoran offered McLellan the job to teach a class in 2014 - There is a multiple email trail of this fact.
  3. Corcoran website listed the class and listed McLellan as the instructor
  4. Corcoran claims in emails and comments that McLellan was never offered a contract for 2014
  5. I am very confused by the Corcoran's claims and have asked them to clarify

'Elevator Chat' with MSAC Chair, Carol Trawick